Halo: Harvest
by vaax27gaming
Summary: The beginning of the Human-Covenant War. A story about a group of friends that are ODSTs. A story of the five long years on Harvest. All categories: Friendship, Adventure, Drama, Hurt, Tragedy, Sci-Fi, and Suspense. All Characters listed: Dare, Mickey, Dutch, Buck, Rookie, Romeo Tarturus, and multiple OCs. This will be a very depressing story. Read at own will. Welcome to Harvest.
1. Prologue: Harvest and Hell

Prologue:

**Song: Burning in the Skies by Linkin Park**

_**Quote:**_

_**"I remember what started this war. What your kind did to mine."**_

_**- Lord Terrence Hood**_

The birds flew over the trees, onwards to the horizon. The scene looked peaceful. But it was not. Down on the ground below, war raged at its highest. Bolts of differentiating colors flew everywhere as the sounds of humming plasma sounded through the air. The bark of automatic weapons fire accompanied it. Men ran, bolting for cover as 8 foot monsters took to slaughtering them.

The war not only raged on the ground, but it was also carried into space. How had this happened? How _could_ this happen to humanity? It was a nightmare for our race. A fight against certain death. What had happened? The Covenant is what happened. The alien alliance took to killing our race without a second thought. They seemed to relish in it. It was hell. And it turned in to not just one, but _five _years of hell. Five continual years of men and women dying in the defense of Earth and Her Colonies.

This is a story about a particular, awkward, and yet fitting group of marines. A story about their braveness, about their friendship, about their hates, about their happiness, about their suffering, about their sacrifices, and about their fight for survival.

Welcome to the beginning of that story. Welcome to the beginning of a long war.

**Welcome to Harvest.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Rook

Chapter 1: The Rook

**Song: My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light It Up) by Fall Out Boy**

**Quote:**

_**"Confidence thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on **_

_**faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot **_

_**live."**_

_**-The Rookie**_

Marcus J. Carvan looked outside to the pouring rain as it came cascading down the window pane. He had just gotten new orders to get packed up and report to the _Starlight_ the next morning. It was his third mission as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. He wasn't looking forward to it. All he had been told was that it was out in the middle of nowhere, on a planet named Harvest. Carvan had also been told that it might be a big game changer. He didn't exactly think so. What could be on a stupid farming planet, in the Outer Colonies, that was so important it required the entire sixty-third ODST battalion to show up? He had no idea.

"Rook," he remembered Sergeant Bracken saying, "This information is classified. Whatever is on Harvest has the Captain worried. And I know you won't be happy about this, I ain't either, but the _entire_ battalion is teaming up with the 2nd Armored, and the 207th Infantry."

"Your fucking with me right?" Carvan remembered asking, incrediously. "What has all their balls in knots? What is happening on Harvest?"

"I don't know. I think we have the right to know though, if it has all them worried like that. But then again, it might be for the better if we don't."

Carvan had accepted his mentor's words without questioning him. Whatever it was, he was ready. He was sure of that.

* * *

Carvan got out of the warthog that had brought him to his designated pick-up zone. He looked up towards the South-East and saw the _Starlight_, glittering in all her glory. Carvan then looked around at the other men present. He knew these men. All of them were his squad mates. Squad 19. He looked to his friend Aarin Gomez. Aarin smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up. Carvan returned the smile and turned his head to Bracken. Bracken just looked at him, and studied him. He returned the stare.

"You ready, Rook?" He asked using his nichname for Carvan. "As ready as I'll ever be with no intel, and no idea what I'm getting myself into," he replied casually. This earned a laugh from everbody including Bracken. "Good, good," he said with a smile.

Then, they all looked up as they heard the familiar sound of a Pelican Dropship. As it got ready to land, the pilot opened the back hatch, and said in a friendly and welcoming voice, "All aboard."

Carvan sighed as he picked up his bag and gear, and took his pace on the dropship along side his fellow troopers. He looked left to right at each face, and felt a bond with the men. He felt happy, almost joyous, even though they still had a long journey and were about to engage in some kind of engagement. He honored to call these men his brothers in arms. He felt confident and proud.

Bracken noticed his cheery mood and asked, "What has you so happy? Don't you realize that in a week, half of us might be dead or dying? I don't ever understand how you can be so happy?"

Carvan looked to his Sergeant in his dread filled mood and replied softly, "I feel proud to be here, with all of you. I feel happy to be amongst true friends. I feel proud to be who I am, and for what I'm fighting for. I feel happy to be one of the best of the best. Why are you so glum? You don't know the future. You don't know if any of us will die. Even if we do we will always have each other to lean on. I'm confident that we can get through this if we stay together, if we stay trustful of one another. It's just another day at the job. We can always overcome hardships if we want to. But you have to strive to. Like I said, I'm confident we can get this done without any mess ups."

Bracken just stared at Carvan incrediously. "Since when will being confident save us from death?" He retorted.

Carvan sighed. He didn't like getting into confrontations. He looked around at his fellow troopers and replied, "Confidence thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live."

And with that, Carvan polarized his HUD while everyone was staring at him.

"Wise words, Rook," Bracken said softly, "Wise words."

"Call me Rookie," Carvan replied, all serious.

"Alright. Rookie."

And with that, Carvan became _The Rookie._


End file.
